TentamusDarkblade

wait a minute Dakoth....you're serisouly arguing that political correctness is as bad as legislated religion? Arguing that what boils down to basic politeness is as bad as forced religious values? You are out of your mind.

Is this Bush's fault or was this something happening long before he got into office? I don't think Bush is the cause, merely a symptom To use a line from someone else. Can you provide evidence for this? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> there's this item and i've read other such articles that show the the religious right are trying to legislate religious idealogy and morality. Look at this last election. The republicans proudly claim that it was the evangilical vote that carried them. The religious aspect of our nation put bush in office because he has championed many of their causes. Now that the republicans hold the House, the senate and the oval office it would be foolish to think that they wouldn't continue to play to their religious base voters wishes.

its depressing that the nation is so divided right now. The urban versus rural divide is only going to get worse before it gets better. It's a no win situation. And now that the religious right has gotten a stronger grasp on the nation, the seperation between religion and state is weakening.

What kills me is how ignorant the average american is... 40% believe that Iraq had something to do with/was behind 9/11

I was going to post this, butthole! " Exit Mundi is an awesome (if a bit unbelievable) site. Good to see someone else knows of it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> i enjoy the fact that the first half of each description sells you on the end of the world event...then the last half totally debunks it. fair and balanced paranoia

thats cool...

check this site out for all your end of the world needs.

i don't care that bush lied....its the fact that he can't admit he was wrong that pisses me off.

it's actually remarkably easy to get into. Around here (the seattle area) there are a couple temp agencies that contract for local studios, with MS being one of the major contractors. I got hired over the phone with no prior games experience. Look into temp agencies in your area and find out if they have any game studios or publishers that they place testers with and then sell the hell out of yourself and how much of a gamer you are

it was a typo....i meant contract test work

although here's a fun and frightening fact. in 1998-1999 they polled folks and found that 1% believed the world would end in their lifetime. Thats with the millinium right around the corner. In 2000-2001 they polled the same folks....and found that the number had jumped to 17%. I'll see if i can find the site that had the original poll figures. The US has a president who believes that more guns and more god is the answer to the worlds woes. This is also a president who honestly believes that when armegeddon plays out, he's going to heaven with the rest of the born-agains and true faith christians. He is not afraid of causing world war 3. He righteous and he's doing the lords work, as he see's it. He's forcing peace in the middle east at the tip of a sword. but thats just my doom and gloom kicking in.... as for a civil war in america, i just don't see it happening. We, as americans, are a lazy lot and it takes a lot to get us off our asses to do anything for ourselves. Will there be a large politcal upheavel if Bush wins? probably, as the various factions of the republican party start to dook it out over the fiscal irresponsibility of Bush's administration. Will the face of US politics change because of it? probably not, since the average american simply doesn't care that much.

what i find the most depressing is that Eldar is right....things like this are just so extreme that people will only see it as an "attack on Bush" and will just flock to him more. The more people point out just how screwed bush's presidency is, the more the idiots in the mid-west flock to him. The dumbest portion of our society is deciding who to put into office. The only thing remotely hopeful if bush wins another 4 years is that there will be a civil war in the republican party.

the best producer i've ever worked with worked in QA and in design before taking on the Producer hat. He has such a solid grasp of the importance of solid design and having a great test team that it just makes the whole process remarkably easy to be a part of.

Tree frog on my chest - I got it while in Australia and its a permament reminder of life at that point. Dragon on my right shoulder - Got this one when i turned 14. It was one of the few times i really got along with my step-dad when i was younger. Tattoos are living reminders of where you've been. They don't have to signify your interests now or have any deep symbolism, they just offer a glimpse of who/where you were when you got it. I think of them as character defining moments that just happen to be displayable.

what...you make them bare-knuckle box till just the last ones standing?

i got my picture taken with Bruce Campbell at a booksigning he did, plus i got a couple posters and his book signed. I got my new Dune books signed by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson and i got to make them un-comfortable by asking about how they felt taking the original Dune series in a more action oriented direction. I got to meet Danny devito, Kathleen Turner, and Michael Douglas when they were filming War of the Roses. They came into my folks video store and signed a bunch of video cassettes and posters. Myself and a couple other guys at Monolith got a private showing of the Half-life 2 video at this years E3 by Gabe Newell himself. It was pretty cool. I got to meet Greg Rucka at a booksigning event he did here in seattle. Anyone who doesn't know who he is needs to pick up one of his books or go read some of the issues of Batman that he did. I own one of the keys to the alamo. It's got a plaque and everything. My wife is an amazing book hunting ninja. She can walk into a used book store, find a rare advanced reader copy woth $500, and walk out only spending a buck. It's mystifying.

d'oh, you're right...i looked it up and seattle proper ranks somewhere in the middle. It isn't up there with San fran, New York, or Hawaii. The point still stands that you can start at the bottom and work you're way up without that much of a financial sacrifice. I play games for a living and my wife stays home and keeps everything running smoothly. If the cost of living were more, then she'd go back to work. But at no point would i be suffering because i want to work in games. If people want to spot a downside to working in the games industry they could easily point at the insanely long hours, the fickle nature of "Game fans", or the attrition rate of studios.

i started doing contract text work, making roughly 20K a year. Last lasted about 6 months. I've steadily moved up the test ladder over the last 3 years and now i'm at 35K a year, which keeps both my wife and I comfortable. I'm not sure about the figures, but i think the Seattle area is in the top 5 most expensive places to live in the states.

not totally true. I'm working towards a design position by going through QA. I haven't had to sacrifice anything. I make enough to not only support myself and my wife, but to keep us in a beautiful apartment overlooking puget sound. The whole "starving artist" thing is pretty much hype. Sure, you won't get rich this way, but if you're in it for the money then you don't belong anyway. There is no reason why you can't be comfortable while pursuing a career in design. Your other points are solid though. Create mods, do some writing, have something to show you can do the job. The best way to get into design is to design something and be able to show it to someone. The best way to show someone is to already be part of the company. And for the folks who are considering the "game design" courses at a local collage, be prepared to not get hired once you get that degree. They're good for teaching you the fundamentals of design, making contacts, and creating a body of work to show you can do it....but these are all things you can get by interning or getting a QA job and doing alittle reading on your own time.

yeah, i just got to do some NPC dialog write ups for our mission system and some NPCs descriptions for the Story bible. I'm hoping for a shot at a junior design position when one comes open in Dec/Jan.

i was 21 and had just got out of the army when i started being a part of the BIS boards. I got my first testing gig when i was 22 and i'm 25 now.

it's kinda funny, but i basically got my start on the Black isle forums. I got interested in Icewind dale 2 and got involved with a fansite with other board members. I got to know Damien Folletto and Tex Yang from BIS and they helped direct me to get into the industry.

i was with the xbox cert team for a bit, then i worked at MS on teh Fable project, now i work at Monolith productions on the Matrix Online project. Monolith is awesome. I work with designers i've grown up reading and playing there games, so it's pretty surreal

yeah, i've been in QA for 3 years and now i'm starting to transition over to design. That's where most of my advice has come from for ya, not my guesses...what's worked for me so far to get here.

i found a template that Chris Taylor made. It's pretty good and it details what needs to be used. I used this template for my first design. Now i use my own format, which is an amalgamation of Taylor's and other design doc's i've seen. One of the huge perks for working at a game studio is the access to design docs in progress, so you can see how they're formed.